Hitachi Finger Vein Authentication Technology, Powered by StepNexus, Wins Card Technology Magazine Breakthrough Innovation Award

Card Technology Magazine today announced that its internationalpanel of experts named Hitachi Ltd., (NYSE:HIT) the 2006 recipient ofits annual "Breakthrough Innovation" award in recognition of Hitachi'sdeployment of finger vein biometric authentication technology, poweredby the StepNexus(TM) MULTOS(TM) smart card platform.

The advanced finger vein authentication technology developed byHitachi relies on clearly identifiable and unique pattern of veins ina finger. Without physically touching a scanner, a user's identity isverified while dramatically increasing security and fraud detection.

Speaking at the awards ceremony Shigyuki Itoh, executive vicepresident of the Smart Card Solutions Department, Security SystemsDivision at Hitachi said, "I am honored to receive this award onbehalf of the development team at Hitachi who have worked persistentlyto develop a biometric authentication technology that can be readilyaccepted and well received by our customers."

StepNexus MULTOS smart cards support matching the finger veinimage within the secure confines of the smart card. Leveraging themulti-application capabilities of MULTOS, the finger vein applicationcan be issued alongside the EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) paymentapplication of the card issuers.

"StepNexus congratulates Hitachi on this award and its dedicationto maximizing security by using the world's most secure smart cardtechnology, MULTOS," said John Wood, CEO of StepNexus. "Hitachiclearly recognized that if they were to be serious about security andfraud prevention, they needed the most secure technology."

Hitachi Finger Vein Scanners have been adopted by members of theJapanese banking community. The scanners are currently being deployedaround Japan for accountholder authentication in eight Japanese banksincluding Kyoto bank, Joyo bank, and Fukuoka Bank.

This prestigious smart card industry award is bestowed annually tothe newest and most significant and innovative use of smart cardtechnology implemented during the previous year.

MULTOS: The Platform for Government and Financial Services

As StepNexus' flagship smart card system, MULTOS is the world'shighest security, open standard smart card platform and the GlobalMULTOS Key Management Authority. It allows card issuers andapplication providers to share space on a single chip platform. Arange of applications ranging from payment, authentication, digitalidentity, biometrics, loyalty, and contactless ticketing may securelyreside on a MULTOS powered chip. More than 50 million MULTOS smartcards have been issued in more than 30 countries, in projects rangingfrom banking, national identity, campus security, secure ID andtransit.

About Hitachi:

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE:HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is aleading global electronics company with approximately 355,879employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidatedsales totaled 9,464.8 billion Yen ($80.9 billion). The company offersa wide range of systems, products and services in market sectorsincluding information systems, electronic devices, power andindustrial systems, consumer products, materials and financialservices. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company'swebsite at http://www.hitachi.com.

About StepNexus:

StepNexus is a joint venture between Oak Hill Venture Partners,Keycorp, Hitachi and MasterCard International, dedicated to extendingtrusted environments to remote devices. StepNexus acquired allintellectual property and operations for MULTOS -- the world's highestsecurity, open standard smart card platform and the global MULTOS KMA(Key Management Authority). The company also owns Nectar(TM), thefirst implementation of Microsoft .NET on smartcards. StepNexus'secure packets content delivery mechanism enables device issuers ofany StepNexus platform to permit third-party content providers todeliver additional services while maintaining security and the trustedenvironment. For more information visit www.stepnexus.com.